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27 May, 2005

SMS spamvertising

A great social evil: "chat groups" and "friendship circles", certain ways to lead young people astray, according to the Khaleej Times. In an extremely confused and (as ever) pompously ill-written screed, the paper takes issue with the "misuse" of SMS. Its contention appears to be services spammed over SMS messages.

The main spammer is in fact Etisalat itself, regularly offering pointlessly miniscule reductions to call charges on public holidays. But according to the KT, "Invitations to join chat groups, friendship circles and the likes" are also popping up, causing complaints that they could "corrupt the minds of the young":

"The argument is that these value-added services, or propaganda, could lead the youth astray since such activity may not be compatible with the social and cultural structure of the local society. Viewed against this background, the demand for some kind of monitoring may not be misplaced. But, will Etisalat accept that?"

Monitoring what? The spamvertisers? The specific services they are promoting?

Not selling people's mobile numbers to unknown third-parties might be a helpful start.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Exactly!!!!!!!

11 June, 2005 13:44  

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